


Heads We Will, Tails We'll Try Again

by aurons_fan



Series: The Misadventures of Rooming with Friends [5]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, College AU, First Kiss, It's finally built into something!, M/M, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-13
Updated: 2014-12-13
Packaged: 2018-03-01 08:00:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2765654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurons_fan/pseuds/aurons_fan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just around finals time, Riku and Sora try figure out where they’re at. And, of course, survive the hell that is finals week. </p><p>Or:</p><p>They'd been doing this ...this thing ever since the fire alarm a few weeks ago and Riku wasn't really sure how to interpret it. But whatever they were doing was comfortable, and it felt like saying something would ruin it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heads We Will, Tails We'll Try Again

**Author's Note:**

> I had no idea that this one would take so long, oops. Nor that it would be so long! Jeez, I had planned this out to be 3K at most. Oops x2.
> 
> If the last one was the Fire Alarm College AU, this could be called the Abundance of Convenience Points/Dining Hall points AU. No really. That’s where this all came from.
> 
> In searching for a title, I realized that “Why Don’t You and I” by Santana and Alex Band is actually a wonderful song for this pairing/little series. Awesome.

Finals seasons was rapidly approaching for the students at Radiant Garden University, and the chill in the air wasn’t so much the cold as it was the imminent fear of one’s complete and utter demise.

And the cold. It was pretty chilly outside.

As the dreaded finals period approached, staying within the warmth of the dorms was no longer an option. The library final decided to stay open 24/7, and the student union stayed open late as well, which was even better because there were stores and stores meant snacks. And by snacks, one obviously means caffeine. And sugar. And more caffeine.

So when Kairi looked up from her textbook one day during their intense study session and mumbled that if she didn't get some coffee _right now_ , she was going to gut someone to her right, Riku decided not to act like she was joking. He was, after all, to her right, and was also ready to cut someone for a pot of coffee.

The worst part was he didn’t even _like_ coffee.

Either way, he closed his laptop with a resounding click and attempted to inch his way past Sora. The boy had been attempting to study, but had ended up closing his eyes and taking a nap, fingers interlaced with Riku's.

It was entirely adorable, and Riku gave him a half smile before slipping his fingers out and attempted to move without disturbing the boy but Sora blinked his eyes open and smiled sleepily up to Riku.

They'd been doing this ...this _thing_  ever since the fire alarm a few weeks ago and Riku wasn't really sure how to interpret it. Any time they studied together in this group, Sora would also sit closer than necessary, or they'd hold hands under the table. But then whenever they were alone in their room, Sora wouldn’t mention a thing, and it wasn’t like Riku was going to bring it up. Whatever they were doing was comfortable, and it felt like saying something would ruin it.

"Mandatory coffee run," Riku said, gently nudging Sora off of him. Sora grunted in protest and rubbed his eyes. “Wanna come with?”

Sora shrugged and stretched, knocking his arm into Hayner. Hayner grumbled and shifted, leaning back onto the table to fall back asleep. “Might as well,” Sora said. “Not like I was doing much anyway.”

Both boys climbed out of the booth and when Kairi made to hand Riku her student ID, he shook his head. “I should have a few bucks left,” he said.

Riku and Sora headed to the small convenience store inside the student union and Riku glanced over to Sora, who was still yawning despite the early hour (and to them, early had started to be anything before 3am, which was kind of sad to think about it). Sora didn’t make a move so Riku didn’t either, stuffing his hands inside his hoodie pockets without a word.

They perused the store for a while, while Riku saw tons of candy and energy drinks he wanted to get, he didn’t think he had enough so he just stuck with two small coffees. Sora, on the other hand, approached the counter with his arms so filled with candy and soda that even the cashier raised her eyebrows.

When Sora noticed both the cashier and Riku giving him weird looks, he scowled and clutched his candy tighter. “I need my energy,” he said. “And I have way too many convenience points left. Can’t give them back to the school.”

“You know you can always request the munny back,” Riku said with a laugh, as the cashier rang up his coffees and he handed over his ID. “Or even use them next semester.”

Before Sora could respond, the cashier shook her head and handed back his card. “You’re out,” she said, looking at the coffees with a frown. “Do you have any munny?”

Well, if Riku did have munny, it was back in his dorm, which was outside, down the street, and in the bitter cold, but Riku wasn’t going to lament his poor wallet planning decisions to this cashier. He made to awkward move to take the coffees and … he didn’t even know, throw them away?

Instead, Sora shoved Riku over with his hip and dropped his piles of candy onto the counter. “Like I said,” Sora said with a grin. “I have a lot of points left.” He quickly glanced behind him, saw no one in line, and jabbed Riku’s side. “Go grab some other stuff.”

Riku turned, eyeing a bag of candy that was calling his name. “Are you sure?”

He glanced to Sora, who was in the midst of rolling his eyes dramatically. “Yes!” He said, shoving Riku towards the candy. “Get whatever. And grab some chips for the table.”

In the end, it took four bags precariously balanced in Riku’s arms (payback for spending so many points, but apparently Sora still had _more_ ) and Sora calmly carrying both coffees for them to make it back to the table. Even weighed down by more sugar than was probably healthy, they managed to stumble their way back. Riku dramatically dropped the bags amongst everyone and Kairi almost cried when she saw Sora with the coffee.

Tidus made a grab for one of the bags and Riku edged it just out of reach, handing Tidus another bag.

“That’s mine,” he said, slipping one bag off his arm and stuffing it into his backpack. “And this is Sora’s.”

He handed the second bag off to Sora as Tidus scoffed and snatched a bag of chips off the table.

“Figures,” Tidus grumbled, chomping away loudly.

One of the bags must have hit Hayner upside the head because he slowly lifted his head, blinking sleepily.

“Whaa?” he said.

Tidus rolled his eyes and threw a bag of Cheetos at his head.

\--

Hours later, when they decided to break for the night, Riku gathered up his stuff and groaned, cracking his neck.

“Are you leaving?” Kairi asked, frowning. Her coffee was long gone and she was already working through a liter of what he was going to assume was Mountain Dew. Maybe she’d poured an energy drink into the bottle. He wasn’t going to judge.

“Nah,” he said, wrapping his charger cord around his arm before shoving it into his bag. “Heading to the library. I have my Calc exam tomorrow and as much as I need to study for Keyblade Wars, I have to ace this one.”

She nodded and took a swig of her concoction. “I’ll stay. I have one tomorrow morning too.”

Tidus and Hayner waved and sleepily heading towards the directions of the dorms. Riku gathered up his coat and turned to head out, only to almost bump into to Sora, who was staring at him with a curious expression.

“You staying?” Riku asked. “I’m sure we have enough caffeine to sink a ship but you should probably get some sleep.”

Sora looked like he was about to protest when he ended up yawning wide enough that Riku could swear he could hear Sora’s jaw crack. Sora grimaced, and rubbed the back of his head. “Uh, yeah I probably should go.”

Riku smirked, and hefted his backpack onto his shoulder. “I should be within a few hours. Don’t want to stay up too late,” he said.

Kairi patted Sora’s shoulder with the energy of someone who had had one too many energy drinks, and they both disappeared up into the door connecting the library to the student union.

Sora watched them walk away. He ignored the strange feeling in his stomach, grabbed his backpack, and headed back to the dorms.

\--

Even though Sora had been lying in bed for what felt like eons, he couldn’t sleep. He wasn’t even trying anymore. He’d taken to staring at the ceiling counting the cracks in it (which, for a dorm they spent so damn much munny on, it had quite a large amount), and every noise outside his room made him jerk to look at the door. And every time Riku didn’t walk through, he sighed and flopped back onto his pillow.

He didn’t even know what to call it, that strange fluttering feeling in his stomach. Maybe Riku had been right, and all that sugar was bad for him. But Tidus had dared him to drink an entire Mountain Dew in less than 30 seconds and Sora may be a lot of things, but he was no wimp.

Sora lifted his hand and stared at it, remembering the warm, dry feeling of Riku’s fingers. He closed his fingers into a fist and let out a sigh. Even if there was actually anything there, and Riku wasn’t just humoring him, he didn’t want to ruin what they had. For all of Roxas’s bitching about not wanting to live with Axel in case something happened, Sora could kind of finally see what he was talking about now.

To be fair, if Riku ended up asking Sora for the room so he could bring someone over, Sora would probably catapult them out a window, no questions asked. So maybe he should face the facts and accept it.

With a groan, Sora rolled onto his side and stared at his phone again, the bright light half blinding him in the dark room. He kept wanting to text Riku to see what was up, but he also didn’t want to bother him, so he attempting to work some mind magic over his phone and coerce Riku to text him when he’d be home.

When his phone started ringing, Sora almost jumped out of his bed in shock, but it ended up only be Kairi.

He swallowed his disappointment and thumbed the phone on. “Hello?” he asked.

There was a deafening silence on the other end, and Sora held the phone away, looking at it suspiciously.

“Hello?” he repeated, and the sound on the other end became a muffled whisper. “Kairi? I can’t-”

“Sorry,” she said, her voice only a smidge higher. “I’m not supposed to be on the phone in the library but I can’t exactly leave can I?”

“What’s up?” he said, swinging his feet off his bed.

Kairi let out a noise that sounded like the mix between a sigh and a laugh. “Riku passed out. All the candy you guys got clearly wasn’t enough.”

Sora sat back for a moment, and held back a snort. “He’s not snoring, is he?”

Kairi actually snorted, and there was a chorus of “shush!” from the line. “No,” she said, her voice dropping. “But I can’t wake him up, and I definitely can’t carry him back to the dorms myself. I wasn’t sure you were awake, but if you can’t come, I can get campus security to help-”

Sora was already slipping into his sneakers, and grabbing his coat. “No, not it’s cool,” he said, stuffing his head into his hat. “What floor are you on?”

“The third,” Kairi said. “And hurry if you can? I’m afraid if he starts to make any noise, the other students will fling him out a window for sleeping in a study carrel.” Sora rolled his eyes, and Kairi huffed. “Don’t make fun of me! I don’t know what happens to tired college students who too much energy!”

“I’ll be there in like ten minutes, Kairi,” Sora said with a laugh, thumbing the phone off, and heading out the door.

\--

Kairi certainly wasn’t joking about the murderous look of exhausted college students. When Sora got to the library, hiked to the third floor, and caught sight of her, he opened his mouth to say something, and he felt more than saw what could have been hundreds of eyes staring at him, daring him to say a word so they’d have an excuse to rip him limb from limb.

Sora stuffed his hands into his coat pockets, lowered his head, and quickly moved over to their study carrels. He gently tapped Kairi’s shoulder and she pulled out her earbuds, smiling up to him.

He opened his mouth again to say if she was ready, and she quickly covered his mouth with her hand, looking around quickly. He glanced to where she was looking to see another batch of students staring at him, clutching their sharpened pencils menacingly.

Jeez. If students reacted like that to a bit of noise, maybe the library _shouldn’t_ be open 24/7.

Kairi climbed out of her seat and moved over to Riku, shaking him softly. When he didn’t move, Kairi sighed inaudibly, and moved to pack up her stuff. Sora approached Riku.

Sora was about to shake him but he stopped for a moment and just stared. Riku was always the earliest riser and the last to fall asleep so he never really got a chance to see how incredibly peaceful Riku could look.

As Sora reached towards Riku, whether to shake him or stroke his hair, Kairi glanced over to see if Riku was awake and Sora jerked in nervousness and practically slapped Riku upside the head.

Riku still didn’t move.

Sora groaned, dropping his head in his hands, and started trying to pack up Riku’s stuff, which was a quite a challenge considering Riku was laying on most of his things. Kairi rolled her eyes but from her position on the floor, snagged Riku’s backpack from under his legs and handed it to Sora, who started to shove Riku’s papers in it.

When they were all packed and all that was left was an exhausted Riku, Sora took a deep breath and leaned in close, shaking Riku’s shoulder. “Riku?” Sora said as softly as he could.

The kid in the study carrel next to Riku’s had not been amused throughout this whole adventure, and now that Sora was speaking in a sound louder than “silent as the grave,” Sora could feel eyeballs on him.

Angry eyeballs.

“Riku,” Sora tried again. “It’s Sora. Come on, we’re going to get you to bed.”

“Sora?” Sora leaned back slightly, as Riku blinked and looked at him with unfocused eyes. Riku yawned and rubbed his eyes and shook his head, throwing Sora a confused look. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

Not wanting to risk the wrath of the students, Sora nodded towards Riku’s coat. “Come on, let’s get you out of here.”

Riku, seemingly ignoring the glares from the other students, nodded slowly, and then slowly climbed out of his chair and slowly shrugged into his jacket.

Sora and Kairi exchanged glances, and Kairi looked ready to defend them from the terrifying, over-caffeinated students.

Before there was a brawl of students in the third floor of the library, Riku sleepily reached for his backpack and smiled dopily. “I’m ready,” he said, and started stumbling towards towards the exit without them.

Kairi blinked before shrugging and rushing after him, wrapping her scarf around her neck tightly.

Sora followed, but before he got to the stairs, he grinned to himself, let out a fake but incredibly loud sneeze and sprinted down the stairs before anyone could do him any harm.

\--

Halfway back to the dorms, Riku suddenly decided that he wasn’t going to stay awake to actually get there and almost collapsed. Sora, who had been watching him suspiciously, barely caught him before he landed on the ground.

“Thanks Kairi,” Sora said, one arm under Riku’s as the taller boy leaned heavily onto him. Kairi had her arm wrapped around his other side with his backpack slung on her shoulder and they inched forward through the dorm hallway. “I don’t think I could’ve dragged him here by myself.”

“Neither could I,” she said with a grunt, before helping Sora lean Riku again the wall next to their dorm room. Sora fiddled to find his keys and she yawned loudly, stretching her arms. “You need any help getting him inside?”

“Nah,” he said, jamming the key into the lock. “I should be fine.”

She nodded, handing him Riku’s backpack before heading towards the elevators, yawning loudly again.

Sora kicked open the door and grabbed Riku again, maneuvering him inside. “Here we go…”

In an attempt to carry both Riku’s incredibly heavy backpack (seriously, how was Kairi able to carry all of this?!), and Riku himself, Sora over balanced and all but dropped Riku on the nearest bed, which was Sora’s. Sora grumbled to himself, placing Riku’s backpack on the floor next to his desk, before turning and seeing Riku face down on his pillow.

“Aw, come on,” Sora groaned, trying to shake Riku awake. “Your bed is literally right there!”

Riku did not wake up. Sora tried shaking Riku but he only turned and almost got his dirty shoes on Sora’s bed.

Sora frowned, and, with a wince, tugged Riku’s sneakers off, as well as pulled his coat off. Riku wiggled around and managed to make himself incredibly comfortable on Sora’s wonderful pile of pillows and blankets that he had created for the best night of sleep, and Sora grumbled some more.

He turned to Riku’s bed, which, while probably comfortable, was not his own bed, and sighed, resigned to his fate. He toed off his shoes, shrugged out of his coat, and climbed into Riku’s bed, attempting to get comfortable.

It… wasn’t.

Well that wasn’t fair. Riku’s bed was as comfortable as any _normal_ bed could be but Sora had _standards_ dammit. He wasn’t going to sleep on some not as comfortable bed while his was literally a few feet away.

Ignoring the fluttering in his stomach (which he was still going to blame on that Mountain Dew, because it was past four in the morning and he was a mature adult), Sora gently shoved Riku over and tugged a few blankets from under him. He covered Riku completely before climbing into his bed and snuggling down, grinning to himself.

He might as well enjoy it. Tomorrow (or later today to be honest), they’d laugh it off with Riku being too tired to remember and probably never speak of it again. Sora snuggled into Riku and smiled.

\--

Riku could feel the sun shining into his eyes, but from an unusual position. Riku groaned and nosed himself into the warmth that was beside him. He and Kairi had probably passed out on a library couch or something.

When the thing he had touched groaned a sound that was decidedly _not_ female, his eyes snapped open and he was about to apologize to whomever he had passed out on in the library. He quickly recognized his own room and relaxed slightly, leaning back onto the pillow. He glanced over and noticed his own bed, empty and half messed up, like someone had climbed into it. It suddenly hit him that he had to be in Sora’s bed and the warm thing was probably Sora himself.

A quick glance down confirmed it. If it wasn’t enough that he was apparently hogging most of the bed, but Sora was resting his chin on Riku’s chest, staring up at him with a small, sleepy smile.

That smile quickly faded when Sora seemed to realize Riku was awake, and Sora all but jerked away to get out of his space.

“Morning!” Sora said, moving to sit on the edge of the bed.

Riku ran a hand through his hair, noting how tangled it had gotten. “What happened? Did I…” His mind raced through a lot of possibilities and with every passing moment, Sora’s face fell a bit more so Riku quickly picked the most logical explanation. “Did I come home last night and crash in your bed?”

Sora grinned but there was something off about it. “Nah. You passed out at the library, and Kairi and I dragged you home. Well,” he paused, tapping his chin. “Yeah, I mean you did crash in my bed but I should have dropped you in your bed first instead of making sure I didn’t drop your laptop. It weights a _ton_.”

Riku blinked as Sora kept babbling about the evil students in the library and how they were about to stab him and Kairi with extra sharp pencils and noted that Sora did the same thing when Roxas had confronted him about his missing shirts that Sora had refused to hand over. Or Tidus about his missing potato chips that Sora had accidentally eaten. He rambled on and on when he lied and Riku didn’t know what he could be lying about.

“Was that it?” Riku asked, and Sora stopped, running a hand through his spikey brown hair.

“Yeah,” Sora said, sounding a little dejected, dropping his hand. “That was it.” He closed his eyes for a moment, before opened them with a renewed vigor. “I dragged your ass home, and this is the thanks I get?” He said, plastering on a grin. “Come on, you have-”

Riku frowned and grabbed Sora’s arm before he could climb off the bed. “You know,” Riku said softly, sitting up as well. “We're going to have to talk about this.”

“Talk about what?” Sora said dumbly, and Riku rolled his eyes.

“ _This_ ,” Riku said, awkwardly flailing his arm. “The hand holding and the sleeping together.” Just saying that made him flush and he shook his head. “We really need to.”

Sora didn’t say anything for a moment before turning back to Riku with a shrug. “We should,” he agreed, before nodding towards Riku’s clock. “But you might want to get ready for your final first.”

Riku blinked slowly, glancing over to his clock as well. When he noted that it was 10:01am, or, more accurately, just less than an hour before his final, he practically shoved Sora out of the way and sprinted towards the bathroom. He doubled back to grab his toothbrush but ran back out.

With a groan, Sora collapsed onto his bed and covered his eyes. He didn’t even move when he heard Riku race back into the room, grab his backpack, and race back out. Maybe he’d just die here and he’d never have to have any explain anything to anyone.

 _And_ he wouldn’t have to take his finals.

That would be a nice bonus.

As Sora was contemplating who would get what in his collection (most of his stuff would go to Roxas, but his nicely typed notes would go to Kairi, which would be redundant because she’d given him the notes in the first place), his room door creaked opened and Riku let out an awkward cough.

Sora leaned up on his elbows to see Riku, staring down, flushed with embarrassment.

“I know this is super awkward,” Riku said to the floor. “But could I borrow some munny from your convenience points again? I … I’m definitely going to need coffee for this exam.”

Sora blinked slowly, before groaning and hopping out of bed, slipping in his shoes and grabbing his wallet and keys. “Couldn’t you just use munny?” He said, following Riku down the hall to the elevator, where he began jabbing at the down button.

“I don’t have any on me,” he said, rubbing his arms. “And the nearest ATM is really out of the way… Look, never mind. I’ll be fine.”

Sora rolled his eyes and when the elevator showed up, shoved Riku onto it. “It’s fine. I’m already up.”

The ride down and the walk to the store one of the most awkward experiences Sora had gone through in his life, and he’d walked into his brother having sex. Well, almost having sex, but it was still really pretty darn close and he was still traumatized.

Either way, this was probably even more awkward. Riku was making great effort to not accidentally bump into him, and Sora, in retaliation, made sure to not accidentally like, step on him when walking. There was about a two-foot gap between them as Riku grabbed his coffee and Sora paid for it, and it was so awkward Sora almost wanted to cry. Or punch Riku in the face.

Or just go back to what they were.

“So uh,” Riku said, nodding to his coffee. “Thanks for… for this.”

“You’re welcome,” Sora said. The conversation stopped immediately afterwards, like one of those killer students from last night had gutted it through the heart.

Riku cleared his throat and took a sip of coffee. He coughed. “Uh, I’ll just be going now.” He gestured toward the college buildings off in the distance.

This was just stupid and exactly what Sora was afraid of. He rolled his eyes just as his heart decided to enter into a backflip competition, and grabbed Riku’s arm before he could scamper off.

“Look,” Sora said, words spilling out. “We _are_ going to talk about this but… I just…” He shook his head and leaned up, kissing Riku on the cheek. “Just good luck on your exam.”

Sora’s heart must have been winning first prize for how much it was rolling about as he leaned back and let go of Riku’s arm. Riku’s expression turned blank and Sora awkwardly stepped away.

“You… should probably go?” Sora said, as Riku lifted his hand to his cheek.

“Huh what?” Riku said and Sora rolled his eyes, and gave a genuine grin for the first time this morning.

“Your exam? The exam that’s starting in,” Sora pulled out his phone. “Just over a half hour?”

Riku blinked. “Exam?”

Sora groaned and rubbed his face with his hands. “Oh my god, what have I done?” He shivered slightly, because he was an idiot and had only grabbed his hoodie, despite the snow on the ground. Sora leaned in close, jabbing Riku in the chest. “You’re going to go to that exam. And you’re going to ace it, because you spent _all night_ studying for it and Kairi and I had to _lug your ass home_ so don’t you make something like a…” He faltered for a moment, before jabbing Riku in the chest again. “Don’t you make something like a kiss throw you off balance! You got this!”

Riku blinked again, but recognition slowly returned into his eyes, and he nodded. “Right. Exam. I’ll just be going then…” He took a step away from Sora, about to walk away. He stopped suddenly and clenched his free hand tightly. “Fuck it.”

He spun on his heel, grabbed Sora’s sweatshirt. Sora could hear his heart pounding loudly in his ears as Riku tugged him the few inches forward and kissed him. Sora’s eyes widened in shock as before leaning into the kiss, grabbing Riku’s coat tightly and just enjoyed the feeling Riku’s lips soft against his and the slight bitterness of coffee.

Eventually, Riku pulled away, leaning his forehead against Sora. “Sorry, I just…” Riku let out a laugh, and Sora felt his breath, hot on his face. “If I didn’t, I would have spend the entire exam thinking about it and kicking myself for not doing it. But, yes. Exam. Calc. Got it.”

Sora pulled away a bit and gave Riku a small shove, still grinning. “Go take your test, you idiot,” Sora said.

Riku nodded and turned, coffee tight in his hand and raced away.

Sora reached up and touched his lips before pumping his hand in glee. After a moment he realized he was still outside and it was freezing and if he wanted to still have lips in the near future, he needed to be warm, so he raced back inside.

\--

Sora had been attempting to study for his test tomorrow ever since he stumbled back into his room, half frozen. But instead, he kept touching his lips and grinning to himself, barely paying any attention to the notes in front of him.

As time wore on and it grew to be much later than when Riku should have been back for his test, Sora started to grow worried. He pulled out his phone and attempting to once again, mind control someone to contacting him, ignoring his work entirely.

Instead, there was a knock on his door, and Sora put down his phone, quickly moving to open it.

Kairi, Hayner, and Tidus stood outside. Hayner was facing Kairi, hands in the air. “We couldn’t have just texted him, nooo, we had to creepily creep his room like the creeps we are,” he muttered under his breath.

Kairi rolled her eyes at him, but turned to face Sora, grinning. “Hey! We’re heading down to the dining hall, and since we all have our final tomorrow, I thought…” she trailed off, noting the crestfallen look on Sora’s face. “Are you okay?”

Tidus and Hayner stopped their bickering and turned to look at him, and Sora flushed slightly. “Yeah!” he said, standing up straight. “I just thought Riku would have been home by now.”

“Maybe he got run over by a horde of students rushing home,” Tidus offered, letting out a sigh and glance towards the ceiling. “I know I’m ready to beat someone down just to be done with finals.

When Sora’s eyes widened, Kairi gently punched Tidus in the shoulder. “Or maybe,” Kairi said, shaking her head. “He’s just off talking to a professor or something. Besides, he’ll be home eventually, _and_ we all have this test to study for. Just let him know we’ll be in the dining hall and we’ll catch him later, okay?”

Sora deflated and nodded, turning to grab his stuff from his room. He glanced at his bed and sighed again, before hefting his bag on his shoulder and following them to the elevators.

\--

Sora and Tidus watched amused as Kairi and Hayner got into a long, long discussion (fight would have been a more correct term) about the age of Master Xehanort (Kairi was saying around 1,000 to 10,000 years old while Hayner was arguing closer to a bazillion) when Sora’s phone buzzed in his pocket.

“Is that Rikuuuu?” Tidus asked, leaning to glance at Sora’s phone. Sora rolled his eyes and pulled the phone away from Tidus’ vision and Tidus gave him a look. “I’m only asking because we’re never going to end this argument. Even if the answer is literally right in front of them.” Tidus turned his laptop to face Sora, where it did, indeed, say that Master Xehnort was speculated to be between 1,000 and 10,000 years old.

“It’s not like Hayner is going to listen,” Sora said, opening Riku’s text, and realizing in the back of his mind he’d never actually told Riku where he was going to be.

Well, it wasn’t like Riku mention anything to him.

Sora closed his eyes and shook his head, willing to get the judgmental tone out of there, and answered Riku’s frantic text of where he was with _Dining hall, studying with Kairi, Hayner, and Tidus about final tomorrow. Want me to head upstairs?_

When Riku finally answered with _Nah, I’ll be down in a bit_ , Sora closed his phone with a disappointed frown, but turned back to his notes.

As if the universe really didn’t want them to study today, Roxas popped up behind their booth and glanced over all of them, staring blankly at Hayner who was huffing at Kairi. “Hi,” Roxas said, glancing at Kairi’s notes. “Whatever you two are arguing about, you’re probably wrong, Hayner.”

Hayner sputtered as Roxas circled and climbed into the booth, opposite to Sora. “So,” Roxas said with the ease of someone who was done with all their finals. “How goes it?”

Everyone gave muttered groans and explanations (except for Hayner, who was still sputtering), when Sora noticed Riku walking into the dining hall. Riku glanced at his phone again, frowned, and then looked around for a moment and caught Sora’s eye. He tentatively grinned, and Sora beamed back.

Roxas followed Sora’s gaze and rolled his eyes. “Ugh,” he grumbled as Riku approached. “Him.”

“Hey!” Riku said, collapsing into the seat next to Sora. He dropped his head against the back of the chair and exhaled loudly.

Tidus gave him a look. “What, did you run from your last final?”

Riku let out a snort. “Something like that,” he said, slowly raising his head. “Had to talk to a couple of professors after taking my final today and I had to chase one of them all over campus and I…” He looked like he was about to glance over to Sora but stopped himself when he noticed Roxas’s glare. “I just wanted to be back home.” He ended simply, shrugging out of his coat.

“How was your final?” Kairi asked. “Did you manage to remember anything after passing out in the library”

Riku didn’t turn to look at Sora again, but Sora felt Riku’s hand reaching over for his under the table. Without looking down, Sora grabbed it, holding on tightly. “Yeah,” Riku answered, nodding towards Kairi. Sora grinned, glancing down at his notes as Riku rested his other elbow on the table. “I think it went well.”

Roxas paused at eating his slice of pizza and narrowed his eyes, staring at Riku. He didn’t say anything, but his glare managed to drop the temperature of the room by about 10 degrees.

Kairi shivered and turned back to her notes. “Well, now that we managed to figure out how old Master Xehanort would have been,” Kairi said, with a venomous edge towards Hayner. Hayner grumbled under his breath. “Let’s get back to work. _Some_ of us still have finals to go.”

Everyone grumbled in some form of agreement and attempted to study. Sora was having difficulty typing one handed so he ended up pulling out his notes. But even when he was highlighting them, he struggled slightly, attempting to hold the paper with his elbow and highlight with his hand

Riku snorted next to him. Sora glared at him, but squeezed his hand under the table.

“Okay,” Roxas said, throwing down his slice of pizza. “Maybe everyone else is missing this bout of awkwardness here, but like, what the fuck is going on?”

Sora and Riku froze, noting that everyone had turned to face them. “Uh,” Sora said, laughing awkward. “Nothing.”

“Yeah, you two have been acting kinda weird,” Tidus said, closing his textbook. To be fair, Tidus was excited about any form of distraction from work, so maybe he wasn’t the best judge of character.

Even Kairi looked concerned. “Is everything okay?” She asked with a frown. “Have finals got you down?”

Both Riku and Sora looked around the table at the concerned and annoyed faces (well, the only annoyed face was Roxas, but annoyance was slipping into something akin to rage) before glancing at each other.

Riku shrugged, his face flushing. “Do you mind if I?” he started to ask, turning towards Sora.

Instead, Sora let go of his hand, reached for Riku’s face and pulled him down for a kiss. Riku allowed his brain to go through a half a second in shock that this was not only happening again, but that Sora’s brother was watching from the other end of the table, before relaxing into the kiss, laughing ever so slightly.

Sora pulled back a little and frowned up at him. “What is so funny?” He grumbled, a smile playing on his face.

Riku leaned close and they kissed him again, more chastely this time, before Riku whispering, “Roxas is going to kill us.”

“Just you,” Sora muttered, grinning. “I’m just going to get judgmental looks for a while.”

They pulled away when Tidus gave a slow clap. “Fucking finally,” he said, rolling his eyes. He glanced over to Hayner who was looking more aggravated than one should. “You owe me 20 munny. I _told_ you they’d get together before finals were over.”

Roxas’s eyes widened. “What do you mean, finally?” He asked, fear creeping into his voice. “How long has this been happening?”

Hayner continued grumbled and sinking into his chair and Kairi gave them Tidus and Hayner dark looks. “What they’re trying to say,” she said, turning to an amused looking Riku and Sora. “Is that we’re happy for you guys! You’re both so adorable. But.” She turned her dark look onto the two of them, and they both shrunk in their seats. “We still have a final tomorrow and you best keep that kissing to a minimum. There will be _no_ more distractions tonight. And yes,” Kairi added, glancing over to Roxas, whose eyes were all but comically bursting from his head. “No murdering Riku tonight either. We have to work _._ ”

“ _Who are we happy for_?!” Roxas exclaimed, looking ready to jump out of his chair. Hayner threw Roxas a look.

“Look dude, just cause you were too busy banging your boyfriend to notice that your brother was throwing all sorts of awkward sexual tension around with his roommate is no one’s fault but your own,” he said, fishing his wallet out of his pants and, with another grumble, handing the munny over to Tidus, who grinned. “Now, we need to get back to work, before Kairi tries to tell me that the reason for Terra’s downfall had nothing to do with his mind-controlling pants.”

It was honestly amusing whose face was more horrified, between Roxas gaping like a fish and Kairi’s eyes bugging out of her head.

“B-b-but,” Roxas sputtered. “But I thought nothing was going on between them! That’s what they said!”

“T-terra’s pants?! Mind controlling?!” Kairi shrieked. “Did you miss the _entire_ chapter about how he was being manipulated by Master Xehanort? _Did you even read the book?!_ ”

Hayner shrugged and wiggled his way back into a comfortable sitting position. “Eh, he honestly took a look a Maleficent and thought she was a nice and kind woman. Master Xehanort had nothing to do with that.” Hayner picked up a pen and jabbed it in Kairi’s direction, who was still sputtering disbelief. “It was his pants, I tell you. They looked pretty suspicious.”

Kairi shrieked again and attempted to bludgeon Hayner over the head with her own textbook, screeching variations of “See if I ever lend you my notes again!” Tidus seemed to have decided enough was enough, and was attempting to continue studying while also dodging Kairi’s missed textbook blows.

Riku glanced over to Sora, who shrugged and opened his notes. “I guess we aren’t the most interesting part of our friend group,” he said, grinning.

“I’ll say,” Riku said, a little in awe at Kairi’s violent streak.

After a moment, he shrugged, and flipped open her notes. He grabbed a pen and was about to start writing when Sora offered his hand out to him without looking up from where he was highlighting.

Riku grinned and grabbed it, before tuning back to his work.

\--

After another few hours, Tidus dropped his notes onto the table.

“I’m done,” he declared, flinging his pencils across the table. One of them hit Sora squarely in the face, and Sora scowled at him. “No, and you should be too. We know all this shit, and I’m so over trying to understand Terra’s motivations. Which,” he added hastily, glanced nervously over to Kairi, “has nothing to do with Terra’s pants.”

She hummed in approval, before leaning back against the booth. “He has a point. We have been studying forever and cramming probably won’t help anymore.”

Hayner held up his papers, turning them slightly. “Did anyone in the history of this class notice that Master Eraqus’s name is an anagram for square?” he asked, frowning slightly. Kairi let out a groan and dropped her head against the table. “No, really! Look!”

Riku shook his head and glanced over to Sora, who was squinting at his computer. “You okay?” He asked, giving Sora’s hand a squeeze.

Sora nodded, chewing on his pen. “Yeah,” he said, frowning. “I mean, I know a lot, but what if it’s not enough.”

Tidus waved his hand. “Pfft. I’ve heard that Ansem sticks pretty close to his notes and lectures. If you know what we learned in class, we should be fine.”

Sora shrugged, and glanced over to Riku, who yawned, tugging his hand away from Sora’s to cover his mouth. “Sorry,” he mumbled, rubbing his eyes. “I didn’t sleep a lot last night.”

Roxas, who had decided to stay with the group even though he had been long finished eating (and had glared at Riku for the entire time), snorted viciously. “Ah,” he said, venom creeping into his voice. “What were you two up to last night?”

From anyone else, that would seem like a sexual comment. From Roxas, it sounded like a threat.

Kairi lifted her head from the table and kicked him. “We were up late studying,” she said with a groan. “Just because _some_ of us are done with finals…”

Riku waved a hand. “I’m heading off,” he said, reaching to grab his stuff off the table. “I’ll finish studying in the morning.”

“I’ll go too,” Sora said, slamming his laptop shut. He and Riku exchanged looks.

Roxas glanced between the two of them and slapped his hand on the table. “I’ll join you then,” he said, standing. “I’ve always wondered what my old room looked like without me in it.”

Without looking up from his computer, Tidus grabbed at Roxas’s arm. “Nope,” he said, continuing to type one handed. “For as many horrible sexual innuendos we’ve had to deal with from Axel, you are going to suffer through this.”

Riku flushed and Sora let out a nervous laugh, and Roxas’s eyes narrowed, attempting to tug his arm away.

“Come on Roxas,” Kairi said, smiling slightly. “We all should probably be heading to bed anyway. It’s late.”

Roxas’s eyes narrowed even further into slits, but after a moment he nodded. “Alright,” he said, conceding defeat with a slump on his shoulders. “Fine.”

Riku slid out of the booth and Sora followed, tugging on his backpack. They both waved to the remainder of their table (sans Hayner, who was now doodling squares on his paper) and started to head out.

They were almost a good ten feet away when Roxas shouted, “You better not corrupt my brother, you asshole!”

Riku buried his face into his hands and attempted to melt through the floor. Sora groaned, grabbed Riku’s arm, and tugged him out of the dining hall, which was thankfully almost empty.

The elevator ride was awkward this time as well, but an entirely different type of awkward from earlier. Riku grimaced when he realized that his hand was all clammy and almost moved it away, but Sora held firm.

“So,” Sora said, as the elevator door dinged open to their floor.

“So,” Riku echoed, as they walked to their room.

Neither said anything else until Sora had managed to find his keys and unlock the door, shutting it behind them. There was another awkward silence between them as Riku shrugged out of his coat and Sora dropped his backpack next to his desk.

“So,” Sora repeated, plopping down into his desk chair. Riku sat at his desk and spun around to face Sora. “How was your talk with your professor?”

Riku closed his eyes for a long moment, before opening them, glancing up to Sora. “It was fine. But we’re not talking about that now.” He rolled his chair over to Sora, staring down at his hands. “I’ll just… I really like you, okay? But if this is just going to be some…” he waved an arm. “Thing we happened to do on occasion, I can’t. It’s okay if you aren’t actually interested in me but I really don’t want this to be some fling that just happens because we’re living together and-”

He stopped suddenly when Sora climbed out of his seat and wrapped his arms around him. He hesitated for a moment before hugging Sora back, his face pressed against Sora’s stomach. “I like you too,” Sora said, his laughter barely hidden in his voice. “And I want to be with you. I want to go on dates and walk down the street holding hands and hide you away from my brother when he attempts to rip you limb from limb.” He paused for a moment and let out a snort. “And at least we don’t have to sexile anyone if it happens.”

Riku’s face colored and he was glad he couldn’t see Sora’s face. “When it happens,” he said softly, and Sora hand, that had been stroking Riku’s hair, froze for a moment. “I mean, if you want it to, of course,” Riku quickly added.

Pulling back, Sora leaned down and pulled Riku’s closer to him. “Eventually,” he said, grinning as a blush tinged over his face. “But for now…”

Sora glanced into Riku’s eyes and for a moment, neither of them said a word. Riku reached a hand up, and gently cupped Sora’s face and Sora leaned into his hand.

“Hi,” Riku said, breathlessly.

Grinning, Sora moved away, before reaching his arms around Riku’s neck and pressing their lips together. Sora had no idea why, but Riku tasted sweet, and he moved closer, trying to deepen the kiss. Riku leaned forward in the chair, wrapped his arms around Sora and tugged him closer, growling under his breath when the chair managed to get in between them.

With a smirk, Sora leaned back, and untangled himself from Riku’s grip. Ignoring Riku’s soft whine, he tugged Riku off the chair and gently shoved him onto Sora’s bed.

“Ow,” Riku said, leaning up on his elbows. Sora climbed onto the bed and straddled Riku, whose breath hitched.

“Oops,” Sora said, not really sounding sorry at all.

Rolling his eyes, Riku reached up, running a hand through Sora’s hair. After a moment, he grabbed Sora’s arm and tugged Sora down to the bed. Sora let out a noise that sounded suspiciously like a squawk as he landed on the mattress, and Riku let out a laugh. Sora grumbled, shutting him up with a kiss.

They stayed that way for a while, side by side, with Sora’s hands making their way into Riku’s hair, and Riku absent-mindly rubbing a hand up and down Sora’s arm. They bumped noses once or twice and Sora laughed every time, before leaning over and kissing Riku again.

As Sora’s lips started to move their way down to Riku neck, he hissed softly before reluctantly pushing Sora away. Sora leaned back but blinked over to him, confused.

“You know,” Riku said, voice tinged with embarrassment. “When I said I was tired earlier, I wasn’t just trying to get away from your brother.”

As if on cue, he yawned and could faintly hear Sora laughing beside him.

“Sorry,” Riku mumbled, rubbing his eyes with his hands. “I really didn’t think I was this exhausted.”

Sora shrugged and climbed out of the bed. “It’s cool,” he said, grinning over to him. He offered a hand to Riku, who took it and climbed out as well. “Might as well be well rested for our final tomorrow huh?”

Riku answered him with another yawn.

They got ready for bed in their usual maneuver, with Sora changing as Riku headed to the community bathroom and vice versa, before climbing into their respective beds and clicking off the lights.

Sora ended staring at the cracks on the ceiling again, sighing and turning over to Riku who was staring back at him.

Riku shot him a nervous grin. “Would you mind if I…” he trailed off and Sora affectingly rolled his eyes, waving him over. Riku’s grin widened and he climbed out of his own bed.

“If you kick,” Sora grumbled, scooting over. “I’ll kick back.”

“Please,” Riku said, wrapping his arms around Sora. Sora grinned and snuggled deeper into his arms. “I didn’t kick last night.”

Sora glanced over to look at Riku’s face, it only a dim outline from the lights outside their window. He reached up and hesitantly moved a piece of hair away from Riku’s eyes.

With a faint smile, Riku leaned over and kissed his forehead. “Night,” he said, laying back.

Sora reached down and grabbed Riku’s hand, interlacing their fingers together. He could see Riku’s smile widened, and Sora smiled back.

“Night,” he repeated, closing his eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> Hayner totally answered one of his final questions on why Terra’s pants were part of the reason for his demise. Their professor spent twenty minutes cracking up over Hayner’s theory and ending up giving him five extra points for creativity.


End file.
